Free-For-All Friday 4/16/10

Decatur Metro| April 16, 2010| 7:00 am

Use this post to make comments and ask questions about local issues not discussed here in the past week.

Comments close on Monday.

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This week’s Free-For-All Friday is sponsored by Images by N’neka offering $79 Spring Portrait Specials on weekends in April, and a FREE Portrait Session and one 16×20 framed portrait (a good Mother’s Day gift) to one lucky Decatur Metro reader. To enter, just send your name and address to [email protected] with the subject line “Decatur Metro Contest”. A winner will be selected at random on Monday and announced in the comments section below.

For info on N’neka’s $79 Spring Portrait specials click this link or get more details after the jump!

What: Spring Portraits Specials, Weekends in April
Spring is a great time to update your portraits. This is the perfect opportunity for engagement portraits, family portraits, prom portraits, senior portraits, graduation portraits, or gifts for Mother’s Day.

How much: $79

This special includes the session fee, an online slideshow of at least 15-20 unique images to choose from and gift prints of your favorite image. Tax and shipping is included.

74 Responses to “Free-For-All Friday 4/16/10”

I nee advice on buying a new car for the first time in 10 years. I am cheap and don’t want to go over $23,000. I am also an… interesting driver… who is short and need something smallish and safe.
I am leaning towards the ubiquitous Decatur Subaru family. Or the one of the boxy triplets- Kia Soul, Nissan Cube, Scion.

My vote is Honda Element (although the back door annoys me because you have to open the front door in order to open the back, at least that is how it used to be) – it has a cool moon roof for passengers. My other vote would be Subaru. Hubbs says they are very good cars. I had a Nissan once and it had issues. The rear window of the Cube is funny looking how it wraps around on one side but not the other. And those, NelliB, are my thoughts. Now, can we discuss something fun, like what color? I like the light green that the Subaru comes in. It looks nice with tan interior.

Whatever you choose, if you decide to buy a used car, please make sure you run it through AutoCheck, not CarFax. I no longer recommend CarGax because too often, they simply do not make sure their information is the most current (sometimes, it’s as much as 6-8 months out of date, and plenty of things can happen in that period of time).

So, you’re wanting something small, that comes in some funky colors? How ’bout a Mini Cooper? They’re mondo cute, come in every color of the rainbow, and the Mini Club S has plenty of storage, leg room, and can BOOK! They’re not everyone’s cup of tea, but I know three people who drive Minis, and they love them.

Dude, seriously– I’m 5’10”, and my legs are disproportionately long for my body. I can get in & out of a Mini quite easily, and there’s got plenty of leg room in those little blocky interiors! However, you might have a point– I’ve stopped growing, but Baby N, being a growing boy, might hit in excess of 6 feet if you plan to keep the car a decade or so…dunno. Go try one, see what you think (if you haven’t already).

A Mini Cooper would have been my suggestion as well (I had a Cooper S for years, and loved it). A baby seat in the back of any two door car for the giant NB would be a pain, but one of those rear facing child seats in the front would work….

It’s amazing how much you can get in a Mini; people would look at me in astonishment when they saw me loading it up at Lowes or Home Depot!

I have a mini cooper Clubman and I love it. My husband is 6′ 4′ and even he can sit in it without his head brushing the ceiling which was a problem in our old mini van. Also, it drives like a dream and I think people are nice to you on the road because the mini makes them smile.

Also to consider if you’re buying “new” and like to stick with dealership servicing for those first few years is: Where are the dealerships located? My ex boyfriend loved his Subaru Forrester. Not so much the trek to Gwinnett for maintenance & repair.

(He did save boatloads of money by buying it out of state though. Never knew folks actually shopped for new cars @ dealerships on eBay!)

I have had great luck with service on my Nissan truck at the local Nissan dealership. They have picked me up and dropped me off and once I even walked over there to pick up my car. Nice people and very convenient.

Check out the Honda Fit! It’s very safe and has the best visibility out there. The price is fabulous, it has tons of space, and it gets significantly better gas milage than the Soul, Cube, or Scion.

Edmunds.com was really helpful for my family’s car search. They have reviews, safety information, and driver satisfaction ratings for just about everything on the market. Plus they can give you an idea of what people in Atlanta have been paying for the car lately to help you decide if you’ve found a good deal.

Whatever vehicle you choose, I highly recommend buying it through the Costco website. Costco sets the prices the dealers can charge. No haggling, no stress, and they have *every* make and model you can imagine. Place your order, including trim, color, etc., and you will get a call within a couple of hours from the dealer who has your choice. Mine ended up coming from Curry Honda in Chamblee, and I couldn’t be happier with the whole situation. Best $40 (for the Costco membership) I ever spent!

Anyone notice some serious looking (sunglasses, earpieces) guys wearing Security T-shirts standing on Katie Kerr just south of the intersection at Sam’s Crossing (just off the used car lot). I’ve seen them the past 2 days looking very conspicuous.

Yes – they are hanging from the trees all up my front walk and out house is on the market…sure the realtors love walking through that. I think we need a major rain storm or wind to make them go away. I was in my front yard on Monday fighting them with a broom..in my pajamas. I am sure the neighbors think I have lost it – but they really get on my nerves. Their little webs stick to everything.

Getting ready to move into Decatur! YEAAAAAA! For those of you who work remotely, where are your favorites spots for setting up the laptop and taking advantage of the free WiFi? Two caveats to keep in mind when offering suggestions: I prefer sitting at a table in a chair (as opposed to slumped on a sofa) and I am not a coffee drinker (What is wrong with me?!?!? I know!!!) Thanks!

I haven’t been to the U Joint in many months.. probably since late summer/early fall. At the time, they were no longer allowing dogs in the outside seating area. Can anyone tell me whether that is still in effect? Thanks!

It is actually against health code in DeKalb County to have dogs on patios (used for eating) . From what I have heard the U joint stops allowing dogs after they get cited or get many complaints… then they forget and let dogs on the patio again.

Felini’s in Candler park used to have a sign up with the health code on it b/c the residents were so upset they could not bring their dogs on the patio.

I was just at U Joint Thursday night, and there were plenty of dogs there. However, they were tied up on the outside of the patio boundaries. So the owners sat at the tables around the patio perimeter and tied their dogs up just beyond them outside the patio.

One of the houses in my neighborhood (Coventry between Scott and Ponce) has a sign up to warn people about bees swarming in their driveway. I’m told that they are honeybees and that they are just swarming, not nesting, and that they would probably be gone in a few days…but five days later and they are still around–hundreds of them. They show up each day just as the sun hits the driveway and they don’t leave until nightfall. I’m worried because I’m allergic to bees (Epi-Pen and everything). Is there anything that can be done to “encourage” the bees to move on?

When the February recycling event was canceled due to bad weather, someone mentioned that there would be an April 24 shredding event in Decatur. I searched but couldn’t find the details – can someone provide an update, please?

Correction about the bees: it’s not a swarm, it’s just hundreds of bees that show up every day to collect pollen from the grass and bushes in the driveway. So, there’s no “swarm” to remove. Any idea what can be done for a non-swarm like this?

I would contact the beekeepers anyway. If hundreds of bees are showing up, they must be living somewhere and nesting. It may be someone’s lost hive as well. The beekeepers are expert at locating and removing honeybees.

Since the honeybee population is under stress, they are a valuable resource and need to be preserved.

Question to DM: How did you decide whose ad goes higher on your front page–Tom Stubb’s or Jason Carter’s? First come, first serve? I keep asking but no one, including one of the two candidates, has explained to me what the difference between these two are. Their “Issues” page on their websites are almost identical. Tom’s issues are:
– Education
– Environment/Water
– Transportation
– Public Safety
– Ethics

So if you’re in the first tier, as Mr. Carter, Mr. Stubbs and DFB currently are, they take turns rotating through the top three places each time the page is loaded. Tier 2 ads do the same thing, just a bit farther down the page.